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First off, thanks for all of those who have already helped with this game , but now I would like to get a little more feedback to finish it up. There was a spot where it was crashing, but I believed I fixed it. Please let me know if it does crash on you, though and what was happening when it crashed. How many levels should it have? Any ideas for a final level? Anything graphical that could use improvement? Anything hard to understand? Game too hard? Too easy? Thanks!
Some background music for each level might be nice, and 1 or 2 special weapons. Maybe a bit of color also.
I may be interested in an exclusive liscense if its available when its done.
I dont like the flash BW gradient style (uninspired),- and from a game logics perspective why not making the ball in a different color or appearence so that it more sticks out. Right now it´s sometimes hard to follow it- maybe make some glow/ border blinking animation or simply give it a color that more sticks out and not drowns within the greyish environment.
Controls:
how about mouse aiming controls ? - at least the keyboard controls are very slow imo. either speed up those or enable mouse controls for player 1 (gives even the Wii the oppertunity to play your game).
Mechanics:
The idea is really nice,- I just have 1 idea you might like,- wich would be an defense button next to the attack button wich would turn the cannon into a reflective bouncing shild instead of the cannon. That way one could defend themselves using a shild instead of shooting all the way.
Some additional objects within the playfield such as static blocks could be interesting as well.
anyway already very nice game,- & refreshing idea
what if ALL the balls acted like the ball in play?
well.. i got to maximum power ups at level 10. after that it got boring. the bot doesnt get quicker or more acurate.. how come?
i like it, the collisions don't really satisfy me enough though. And i agree that there needs to be some colour variation in there, too grey
other than that, its good. CPU kept up with my awesome pong skillz
we should have a quick 24h pong game creation tournament
Archbob - I am currently looking for music. Just haven't found the right stuff.
PM me more if you are interested in the game.
Render - nice ideas. Changed the ball color. Controls however are going to stay. Using the mouse would ruin the limited rotation. I didn't really understand your shield idea... Also I am horrible with graphics, which is why I used gradients...
Trodgor - I actually considered this before, but I'm afraid that because I am only using AS1.0 that the game would bog down with so many checks.
*****guy - I have fixed it so that the computer updates as least as quickly as you do.
Mr_Malee - Bring on the 24hour comp!
Now to everyone. Is the color change big enough? Do I need to keep on changing more? Still any ideas for a final level? Or should I let people keep on playing until they die and just have a highscore for the longest winning streak?
you can still make some minor changes:
technically you should add the x velocity of your turret to the ball when you fire it
it's not impossible to have a better ai, as time progresses, you can casually switch from a simple aimer, to a very good aimer
instead of having the "more balls" powerup, have a "faster fire" power up, if you fire too far to the left or right, that ball is gone for a good while
Add an X made of two black lines on the ball.
then add to its code:
ball._rotation += ymove
or whatever the Y velocity variable is called. That should make it look like its spinning and be easier to move.
Can you add some more animation?
such as, the closer the ball is to on side the redder that side of the field becomes? At the minute its just like watching some sprites move, add some eyecandy :)
Nice game though, :thumbsup:
trogdor - You are limited to so many balls on the field. You can fire as fast as you can tap the spacebar as long as you don't have an excess of balls on the field.
tidenburg - awesome suggestions. I used both of them. Let me know if that's what you had in mind. Any more eye candy ideas?
I don't like this at all. This is a "cheating" AI. You should simply make it 100% accurate and then back it off for lower levels, making it more accurate as you progress levels. The computer should only be able to buy upgrades when it has enough points, just like the player.Quote:
Originally Posted by TheLostGuru
In general, it's easy to make a hard AI easier. It's hard to make an easy AI harder. It's best to get the AI as good as possible then make it stupid.
well... I made the change for the player who scores 15 goals against the AI's 1 goal. If he is already killing the computer, shouldn't I upgrade the computer to make the difficulty a little bit better. I mean if I don't upgrade the computer, the game will just get easier and easier for the player. Maybe my thinking is incorrect, though. This is the first time I have messed with upgrades.
Scale it's accuracy, not it's upgrades.Quote:
well... I made the change for the player who scores 15 goals against the AI's 1 goal. If he is already killing the computer, shouldn't I upgrade the computer to make the difficulty a little bit better. I mean if I don't upgrade the computer, the game will just get easier and easier for the player. Maybe my thinking is incorrect, though. This is the first time I have messed with upgrades.
oh... actually I don't ever change the code for it's accuracy. It just gets more accurate as it's speed increases and it hits a lot more when it has a bigger radius.
Lost guru your AI should work something like this:
then as the level progress's onward (level++) the more likely the AI will hit ball.Code:var level:Number = 1;
function doRandom(level, multiplier) {
ranNo = Math.ceil(Math.random()*multiplier);
if(ranNo <= level){
return true;
break;
} else {
return false;
break;
}
}
function shootBall(){
if(doRandom(level, 20);){
//code for the AI to get a direct hit.
} else {
//code for the AI to miss
}
}
That's my point ;) Make it perfectly accurate using the code people have posted. Then make it less accurate by multiplying the angle by a random offset. Something like this:Quote:
oh... actually I don't ever change the code for it's accuracy. It just gets more accurate as it's speed increases and it hits a lot more when it has a bigger radius
var angle:Number = perfectAngle + ((Math.random() * difficulty) - difficulty);
Then if difficulty is "10" for instance, the perfect angle will be adjusted as much as +5 to -5 degrees. As the game progresses, you simply lower the difficulty. The point at which the difficulty becomes zero, the AI is a perfect shot at any range.
This model would have the added advantage that the AI wouldn't cheat and would only upgrade when it could afford it. Players would start off strong vs. the AI but as it got smarter, it would be a lot harder for them to compete. With a few upgrades and perfect accuracy, beating the AI would be almost impossible which is the point. The game gets harder and harder until you lose. It is the opposite of that right now.
You can also scale the AI accuracy faster if someone is really kicking butt. For instance, if you score 10+ in a single round, the AI should get it's accuracy kicked up a few notches.
(didn't read all the replies so don't know if anybody else addressed this)
One thing that has annoyed me from the beginning is, that when someone scores, the remaining balls on the court aren't removed. This means that if I, in a final failing attempt to save the ball, shoots almost horizontally on the wall then I have to wait 'till well into the next game before these balls exits at the top. That's annoying ... maybe you could have a maximum bounce time, so balls only bounce on walls 2-3 times before exploding/fading out. Nobody tries to bounce balls more than that anyway, so it would only make the game more fun.
It plays pretty smooth, but the graphics need some work. Not that I'm entirely against the basic flash gradients, I just think some special effects when you score or some glowing when a ball hits the target would lend themselves highly to the visual aspects of the game. I agree with others in that you should use the AI they have described; once you get level 10 of a few attributes, the game because quite one-sided.
It's funny that you release this game, because I was thinking of something quite similar. My inspiration? The board game Crossfire - released in the early-mid 90's. Course' if I was to remake the game, I'd use a lot more physics and interactivity, and minus the uncontrollable turret. Either way, good job on the game. Polish er' up and you'll have something to be proud of.
Ha! Crossfire is the first thing I thought of when I saw this game ;)
I wanted to create it more like the original with physics, top down, not depth, but instead of constant velocity only use force, so the "alien pucks" (from a review, lol) would not keep traveling, they would stop, and spin, flick balls away, etc.
Ok, I will work with the AI a bit. Thanks for the feedback. YaiEf, I kind of think that that is part of the game. If you make a last minute to try and save yourself, you might just mess up you chances of winning the next ball also. If others agree with you though, I might consider changing this.
I would agree with you that it was part of the game, if the balls worked like in a game of pool. But they don't - it's practically impossible to impact the ball enough at such a low angle to save it, so you're really being punished unfairly for no possible gain.
I'd rather see the collisions react more accurately as well. Also, I'd love to be able to hit my opponents shots too. Maybe doing that destroys both our shots?